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Sam Houston at #7 overall while going 2-1 in Quad 1 games. They play at OK State tonight on ESPNU. Their coach has led the 'Cats for 13 years and has been to the NIT once. Maybe a repeat this year or they can win the WAC if they get past currently #67 Seattle U, #99 Tarleton and #104 Grand Canyon.

Charleston Pony wrote:So at # 282 NET we are the lowest ranked team in the AAC. Jackson State sits at # 315 despite the fact they beat us on our home court. Evansville is appropriately behind us at # 317 and Lamar is at # 343 while A&M Commerce is well ahead of us at # 203.The question is whether this team will make a run at those 6 win seasons under Bliss and Shumate that were the worst in all the years I've followed SMU basketball

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketbal ... t-rankings

There's no question at all - this team is far worse than those Schumate teams that won 6-7 games.

Their schedule was significantly harder than what these guys are playing. Their OOC in 94 included 2 top 5 teams (Arkansas National Champs and Kansas), the top half of the big 8 conference (OU, OSU, Mizzou, and Kansas), along with USC. Then they had to play the SWC schedule (Texas, Tech, Baylor, TCU, Houston, etc). In 1993 it was not any easier with 4 top 10 teams and having to play Kansas twice. No comparison to this year at all. It was labeled as a "Fire the Coach" schedule - and that's exactly what happened.

'94 team Poerner, Troy Matthews, Jemeil Rich, Erion Harris, Jabari Hearn, and Matt Timme would dominate this current crew on the court. Add in Gatewood and Chad Allen from the 1993-94 team and it would be even worse.

And I say this as no fan of Schumate.

It’s a little early to be making the judgement that our new coach couldn’t hang with a cherry picked gang of former players. And, by the way, Shumate went 13-16 his first year.

ponyboy wrote:It’s a little early to be making the judgement that our new coach couldn’t hang with a cherry picked gang of former players. And, by the way, Shumate went 13-16 his first year.

Shumate's program crashed and burned AFTER one of his teams won a SWC regular season title. Bliss had a horrible start but built something pretty strong before the death penalty wiped out big time athletics at SMU. Remember Larry Johnson was coming to SMU before he wasn't. We can only hope Lanier's program gets better and hopefully this team improved as the season wears on. If they quit on him it will be very telling.

As a former season ticket holder back in the mid / late 80’s, early 90’s, I have suffered through some ugly seasons. This season is already reminding me of the 89-90 Shumate year with some talent, like Colborne, but Hampton at PG and Reggie Muhmand at C was painful. Who can forget Indiana Mr. Basketball, Tony Patterson. Seems like we have some talent, but seeing an 89 like 10-18 season, with 5 AAC wins. Long Live John Karl Robertson.

Was Kato gone in 89-90?

ponyboy wrote:Was Kato gone in 89-90?

Kato was at SMU for Shumate's 1st year in '88-'89. I was in Durham and watched him play vs Notre Dame's David Rivers the previous year and remember him driving the lane and dunking over N.D.'s big man that really brought the Dean Dome to life. We beat Notre Dame but lost to Duke in that sub regional in Chapel Hill...but he was gone in '89-'90

ponyboy wrote:It’s a little early to be making the judgement that our new coach couldn’t hang with a cherry picked gang of former players. And, by the way, Shumate went 13-16 his first year.

That’s not a group of cherry picked former players. Those are the 1993 and 1994 teams that won 6 and 7 games. Having seen those players play as well as this current crew, I assure you that this group is not at all as talented. Only bring this up as they were compared to this current team in an above post.

And you have to also understand that Shumate followed the death penalty. While it had a great impact on football - there was also an impact on Basketball. It was pretty amazing that he put together a team that won the SWC in ‘93.